The Dartmouth Mirror 11/8/17

MIR ROR 11.8.2017

THE FINAL ACT: STORIES THAT LINGER | 2

WHEN TO PUT DOWN THE BRUSH | 4

BEAUTY IN THE MUNDANE | 5 HANA WARMFLASH/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

2 //MIRR OR

Editors’ Note Annette: I first met Lauren at an “Incoming Student Meet-Up” in Falmouth, Maine during our senior year of high school. Ten of us awkward, nervous students stood around in a circle attempting small talk, while our parents hovered around, watching us eagerly but trying to look discrete. LB18 and I smiled at each other and exchanged a few friendly words. I left the barbeque thinking, “Wow, the girl Lauren from Bangor in the yellow dress seems nice!” Apparently Lauren, on the other hand, left the gathering with an assumption that I was slightly “stuck-up,” and after stalking me on Facebook that night, supposedly concluded that we would not be friends at Dartmouth. Guess I need to work on my first impressions.

Soon after arriving on campus, May and I met at our first (and last) Fahey 3 floor meeting. All I knew was that she had pretty, dark hair, lived down the hall from me and was from New Jersey. Aside from the short “Hi, how are you?”s we exchanged throughout the year on our treks to the bathroom, we never really interacted. I saw her occasionally at Dartbeat meetings as she complained about her reporting calls for the weekly “Blotter.”

Yet here the three of us are as seniors, texting non-stop every day for the past two terms, complaining to each other, accumulating endless inside jokes, eating sad Collis takeout dinners, slashing Oxford commas, posting horrible slow-zoom videos of each other on our snapchat stories, teasing Ray Lu ’18, threatening to quit our jobs, complaining (did I say that already?), listening to LB’s angry rants and loving every (well, almost every) minute of it. Considering that we are all so VERY different from one another, I am truly shocked — but incredibly grateful — that MayMay and LB are two of my closest friends. I would not have traded this experience for anything, and no, that is actually NOT a lie!

Lauren: When I first joined the news section of The D my freshman fall, I turned to the near-stranger sitting next to me in the training session and announced in a stage whisper that I would be quitting before the end of the term. Smash cut to today, three years later, during my senior fall, having been officially freed from my paper chains after three years of begging to be fired.

The past few years under the fluorescent lights of Robinson Hall have passed in a blur of sad dinners, irate blitzes (fielded), irate blitzes (sent), deleted Oxford commas and termly scandal after termly scandal. It is with a heavy heart that I must admit that the extracurricular activity I complained about the most ended up forging bonds between me and some of the best friends I’ve met at Dartmouth. I must concede that I had a laugh or two in the breaths between whines. I got to meet presidential candidate and meme Jeb Bush, stay ahead of campus gossip before it spread across the bubble and even sent and received a few flitzes based on bylines. I may have slept through most of my Wednesday 9L’s during my junior fall, but I will miss my long nights in Robo, basking in the light of the computer screen and volleying chirps across the room. To the three loyal readers of this editor’s note (Kelsey, Annette’s mom and intrepid EIC Ray Lu ’18), try not to miss my dispatches too much. If you ever need me, just look in a mirror and say “Is it okay if this story comes in a little late?” three times and I’ll pop up behind you to tell you off, with gusto.

May: By a single account Tuesdays are the best “on nights.” Considering I spend most Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays curled up in Sherman Art Library (affectionately termed “Shart” by our photo editor) or in my bed, face four inches deep in a clay mask, watching “Big Mouth,” it is doubtful that changeover will do much for my social life. I’ve worked for the D since my freshman year and since then, Lauren and I have made at least seventeen pacts that we would quit. (Flashback to the night that Lauren met me in Chelsea and spent the night toasting to “F–ck the D!!!!!” and “Freedom!!!!!!”) But we’re still here, four years later, and I’ve procrastinated writing this note for four hours just so I didn’t have to leave the office. My time here has singlehandedly been my most formative experience at Dartmouth and as I look around the room at Annette and Lauren (and Erin and Ray, who are currently debating the aesthetics of DDS food packaging) I can’t help but think how I lucky I am to know and work with these people. I spend 100 percent of my time trying to canonize Annette and screaming at Lauren to stop begging for the sweet release of death every time Ray asks for a fact check — and I can’t imagine a better time. I don’t know what I’ll do on my Tuesday nights from now on, but I know that these are my people. And I think that’s enough.

11.8.17 VOL. CLXXIV NO. 146 MIRROR EDITORS LAUREN BUDD ANNETTE DENEKAS MAY MANSOUR EDITOR-IN-CHIEF RAY LU PUBLISHER PHILIP RASANSKY

EXECUTIVE EDITOR ERIN LEE

PHOTO EDITORS ELIZA MCDONOUGH HOLLYE SWINEHART TIFFANY ZHAI

The Final Act: Stories that Linger STORY

By Annie Farrell

A final scene is often the deciding dissatisfied are often more effective. Hurston and TV show “How to factor in an audience’s opinion of a “[Leaving] a reader feeling Get Away With Murder,” produced work of art. The ending of a book, unsettled or uneasy is almost harder by Shonda Rhimes ’91, adopt this play or movie is the last bite which, to do and can make that work structure. Framing a narrative this if served right, gives the audience ... really stick with the person,” way effectively makes the audience cause for further meditation.

Gerstner said. “They want to know work a bit more while following the There is probably a specific more, they want to try to find a way story, in order to explain the ending final scene that has stuck with you to satisfy that craving for tying up that has been presented. over time. For me, John Steinbeck’s all the loose ends. When [the loose “It is always interesting to see closing to “Of Mice and Men” is ends] don’t all come together, it a story that starts with the end imprinted in my memory. I read leaves this sort of frustration, but and shows you how it got there,” Steinbeck’s novel as a requirement [when] done well ... I think it [can] Berthe said. “I think those stories for my eighth-grade English class. be very masterful.” are difficult to [write], but when Contently swallowed by the worn- Writing a masterful ending is no they’re done well, it is something leather recliner in my living room, easy task, Gerstner said. else.”

I read the last “ T here is so Contrary to the idea that a story’s c h a p t e r o f “[Leaving] a reader much pressure significance rests on its ending, “Of Mice and for an ending the final scene is not always the Men,” closed feeling unsettled to be so many most important part of a story. the book, then or uneasy is almost different things Gerstner argues that an ending’s opened it again at once,” she impact stems from the tension that harder to do and can moments later said. is established through the story. to re-read the make that work [. . .]

J o u r n a l i s t “I think that ultimately the chapter. The really stick with the Katherine Anne ending is the kicker, but you need ending shocked Porter once said to have a good build-up to it,” m e, bu t t h e person. They want to that she would Gerstner said. p u z z l e m e n t know more, they want not begin writing This build-up, Gerstner said, I felt over story until she is the reason she refrains from to try to find a way to aknew George’s how it was skipping to the end of a book. a c t i o n s satisfy that craving for going to end. Reading with the ending in mind compelled me tying up all the loose However, it is takes away from the full experience to read again. uncommon for of the story — the ending has A f t e r r e - ends.” a lot of writers meaning precisely because of what re a d i n g a n d to start this way. comes before it. years of Berthe said that Berthe, on the other hand, feels -JANE GERSTNER ’18 contemplation, he often starts that skipping to the end turns the I still cannot with an idea for story into a kind of “framed” story. decide on a title, character, “Ultimately, you know what is c o n c re t e situation or line going to happen and so it is almost answers to the questions this final of dialogue and then “pull[s] on that even more suspenseful because scene raises. Perhaps this is why it thread” until the end slowly reveals you are waiting for it to happen,” has stuck with me for so long. itself. Authors often experiment Berthe said. “I think it makes it English professor Barbara Will with alternate endings before more exciting for you. If [someone recalled the ending of “The Great deciding on one. Some stories even asked] me, ‘Should I read the end Gatsby” as especially memorable. present alternate endings as a way first,’ I’d say go for it.”

Will marveled at F. Scott Fitzgerald’s to conclude the narrative. The The emotional attachment ability to wrap up a mysterious story film “Clue,” based on the classic that readers develop to a story about a mysterious character into a board game, can explain why symbol of the American dream, an provides the endings stay with “Ultimately, you ending at odds with the rest of the a u d i e n c e us so long after novel. Daniel Berthe ’18, an English t h r e e know what is going the initial and modified with film major, similarly d i f f e r e n t to happen and so it even repeated admires the season finale of the e n d i n g s t o r e a d i n g. T h e TV show “Manhunt: Unabomber” choose from. is almost even more energy invested in for its accomplishment connecting In fact, series suspenseful because identifying with seemingly disjointed plot lines. like “Choose a character in a you are waiting for it The reasons final scenes stay with Yo u r O w n fictional world no us may vary, but it is evident that Adventure” to happen. I think it longer needs to be the best endings are the ones that a n d “ M a d makes it more exciting expended, leaving leave us pondering after the story L i b s ” the audience is finished. books make for you.” feeling that a piece “I think that [storytelling] should c r e a t i n g a of them is missing. be used to make people think, to s t o r y i n t o “I think the -DANIEL BERTHE ’18 make people reflect and to make a g ame i n problem with the people change their minds about w h i c h o n e ending is that it whatever it is the author wants to c o n s t r u c t s comes to an end,” talk about,” Berthe said. their own Will said. “You The best endings do not always unique ending. The prevalence of can’t believe that those characters aim to satisfy the audience. Will alternate endings allows, to a certain that you identified with are no said the way a story ends should extent, the audience to take from a longer there. I think that means reflect the effect the artist wanted story what it wants. that the ending of a novel, the to have on the audience, which is Beginning with the ending ending of a work of fiction can be not always satisfaction. According i s a n o t h e r p h e n o m e n o n i n very traumatic for the reader. In a to English major Jane Gerstner ’18, storytelling. Both “Their Eyes Were certain way, you want to put that the endings that leave an audience Watching God” by Zora Neale off as long as possible.”

Going Varsity: The Evolution of Women’s Rugby STORY

MIRROR //3

By Skyler Kuczaboski

Rugby: a physically, mentally teammates. and emotionally demanding sport. “What we want to do with the On campus, transitioning from leadership [team] is for it to be a a club sport to a varsity sport has way to bring out the leadership in provided opportunities for women the underclassmen or other people to become better equipped in all on the team,” said Frankie Sands three categories. This transition has ’19, co-captain and member of affected the overall performance the leadership team. “That’s what and success of the team. it was established for, to promote “It’s a completely different team,” leadership within the team.”

Isis Cantu ’19 said. “It changed into While establishing leadership an effective and efficient program r o l e s a n d i n t e r p e r s o n a l that is organized and cohesive, re l at i o n s h i p s, t h e t e a m h a s yet it’s still free flowing enough become known for its welcoming to allow every and supportive individual environment. t o f o l l o w “It changed into This includes t h e s a m e an effective and welcoming and guidelines. It’s connecting efficient program very creative with women that is organized and in that way.” who have never S i n c e cohesive, yet it’s still played rugby becoming as well as more Dartmouth’s free flowing enough to experienced 35th varsity allow every individual players. sport in Fuhs originally to follow the same 2015, it has p l ayed va r s i ty s i n c e b e e n guidelines.” soccer for two immensely years then successful, switched to r a n k i n g -ISIS CANTU ’19 rugby, a sport number one she said she had in the nation. never heard of One of the changes that comes until she came to Dartmouth. along with transitioning to varsity “I was really unhappy with is hiring new, full-time coaches. soccer and the team dynamics,” “We have coaches coming from Fuhs said. “I quit soccer on a a really high level of play and Monday and I joined experience,” Lily Zhang ’18 said. rugby that Tuesday. It was “Their coaching ability is definitely the best decision I’ve made way up there. It is undeniable that here at Dartmouth.” we are improving at an increasing Fuhs said the soccer rate.” team has changed since Head coach Katie Dowty, a she quit, but at the time 2006 Harvard University graduate, had an exclusive vibe. was a player and captain for the “It just wasn’t for Crimson. She was also a member me,” she said. “That’s of the USA rugby national team where I was coming from, from 2010 to 2014 and was named I’ve always heard that Goff ’s Rugby Report’s 7s Player of rugby had this magical the Year in 2011. environment that was “ S h e h e r s e l f w a s a ve r y very accepting. It’s a great successful rugby player and she community to be a part knew what a championship culture of. When I joined, the looked like and she knew what she girls were so inviting and needed to implement,” Cantu said. willing to teach me how to “I honestly just think she loves the play rugby. I had no idea game and loves sharing it with what I was doing, and they people.” were so willing to teach While creating a championship me. I couldn’t believe how culture, Dowty also incorporated invested the coaches and in time for the players to build a the players were in me.” team off the field.

Sands originally “We went on a cabin retreat played rugby for Norwich a few days before spring term University and decided started,” Katie Fuhs ’18 said. “We to transfer to Dartmouth talked about our values as a team, after two years. When and we often have meetings about Norwich and Dartmouth team culture and what we want that played the quarterfinal to look like.” game to decide which Contrary to a hierarchy that team would go to the may be expected in varsity sports, national championship the women’s rugby team has a in 2015, Sands scored leadership team which is comprised the winning point for of six players elected by their Norwich and defeated

Dartmouth.

“The next year I came and was like, ‘Sorry guys,’” Sands said. “It was not as bad as I thought it would be. I was really nervous coming in.

I was coming in this weird gray area of being an ’18 but like a ’20.”

While efforts have been made to welcome all regardless of experience or previous teams, going var sity has inevitably excluded certain populations of women at Dartmouth.

Being on a varsity sports team is a daunting time commitment when while working to support yourself and studying.

“One stance I want to see the team improve on is reaching back and reflecting on the amount it takes to be a part of a varsity athletic program,” Zhang said.

“And to know that the alum[ni] and the people who used to be on this team may not have had that.

When we transitioned, we had a member shift of the distribution of the type of people who were able to keep playing rugby.”

Transitioning to a varsity sport means there is better funding and accessibility to equipment for the team, but it also resulted in a major time commitment change.

The overall success of the team can be attributed to the transition to varsity status, the experienced

coaches and the dedication and hard work of the players.

“The sport and the people in general have taught me how to

love myself,” Eva Klein ’20 said.

“There’s a position for everybody, we welcome all kinds of people.

There’s no mold to fit.”

4// MIRROR

Finishing Touches: When to Put Down the Brush STORY

By Cristian Cano

Every painting has a final brushstroke.

Every sculpture has a finishing touch. Even every photograph uploaded on Instagram has a last filter adjustment. Regardless of medium, a piece of artwork will eventually reach a point where its artist decides to stop making any more changes.

How do artists decide when they’re done with their work? Does it vary by the individual artists? By the medium? By an assignment’s deadline? This week, the Mirror interviewed three student artists to learn more about their artistic processes and explore when, if ever, they felt confident that their art was finished.

Claire Burner ’20, a studio art major whose main medium is graphite, envisions what she wants her final product to look like and then works until her work matches the image in her head. She believes that this approach is somewhat unusual, especially among students in her class.

“A lot of people will start something with a vague idea of what they’re doing, I suppose, and then they’ll just run with what’s going on,” Burner said. “They don’t really have a solid end goal picture in their head. Whenever I start something, I have a very clear picture in my head of what I’m trying to accomplish.”

How do these clear pictures get in Burner’s head in the first place? She said that it depends, but she’s often inspired by music — not always the lyrics of what she listens to, but rather the general feelings she gets from a song. For example, a drawing that she recently uploaded to Instagram was inspired by the track “Be Together” by electronic music group Major Lazer.

When she’s working on a piece inspired by a song, she said that she doesn’t listen to it on loop while she draws, but she may listen to it to strengthen her mental image of the completed work.

“Something I like to do is when I know I’m about to finish my drawing, I’ll put that song on, so then it’s finished while the song is

playing,” Burner said.

Will Allan ’18, a studio art major with an architecture focus, has a very different approach to finishing his artwork. Unlike Burner, he said that he almost never has a clear idea of how he wants his pieces to end up. He attributes some of this uncertainty to his difficulty understanding the motives behind his pieces before he starts.

“I also have trouble figuring out my motives internally,” Allan said. “I just build something or take a photo or draw something — I don’t really know why. A lot of artists are very specific about their intentions and are very articulate with their intentions. That’s not me at all.”

Allan spends a considerable amount of time thinking about how he wants to continue working on a piece. He said that he’ll even take photos or videos of a sculpture that he’s working on so that he can look at it when not in the studio. Allan believes that not having enough time, and other limitations outside of his control, are the worst reasons to “finish” a work — and, unfortunately, he encounters these limitations often in his art classes.

“Ideally, a finished piece would be one that I’ve gone through all the possible options I can think of, tried everything and got as much feedback as I can,” Allan said. “But that’s kind of unrealistic because you have time constraints and material restraints and you can’t get feedback from everyone you want.”

Grace Hanselman ’20, a prospective studio arts major who hopes to concentrate in either drawing or painting, finds that how she determines if a work is finished depends on the medium.

“With drawing, I’m a little more conscience of everything that I need to do because the process of putting the marks on the paper is a little bit slower,” Hanselman said. “With a paintbrush, you can cover a lot more ground with just one stroke. With a pencil, it’s a very fine process.”

One struggle that Hanselman faces is

COURTESY OF GRACE HANSELMAN

COURTESY OF CLAIRE BURNER

determining whether adding more details to a work will lead to a better final product or “overkill.” She said that when she received feedback from her professors, sometimes they comment on what more she could have done, and sometimes they comment on how a less-detailed approach would have been more effective. “[Adding more details is] kind of like a rollercoaster,” Hanselman said. “It’s getting better, it’s getting better, then you slow down at the top and this is the best work it can be.

If you keep going, it can go down really fast.”

All three students interviewed commented on how they react to receiving feedback on a work that they believed was already finished.

Hanselman acknowledged how hard accepting feedback can be, but she said that she usually keeps feedback in mind when working on future works.

“Sometimes [receiving feedback is] frustrating because art, for a lot of people, is a deeply personal thing that they’re pursuing,” Hanselman said. “Sometimes it feels like someone [giving you feedback] is going into your diary and saying, ‘Oh, you should have said this.’”

Burner expressed a similar sentiment, saying that her professors respect when she believes that a work is finished. They don’t push her to change a work that she’s happy with, but instead they offer advice on how she can push herself outside of her comfort zone in the future.

Allan pointed out that the balance between listening to a professor’s critiques, sometimes in

the pursuit of a good grade, and staying true to one’s artistic vision is tricky to maintain but important.

For pieces of writing, titles are often among the last things finalized. Does this remain true in the visual arts as well? When asked, Hanselman answered that she doesn’t even title most of her works because she fears that doing so would limit a viewer’s freedom to appreciate them in their own way.

“I feel like when you title something, it limits the ways that the viewer can interpret it,” Hanselman said. “I think viewer interpretation and the freedom of viewer interpretation is very important.”

Burner usually chooses titles toward the beginning of her artistic process, and Allan almost never titles his works. Burner and Allan, who both maintain Instagram accounts, individually discussed how Instagram captions aren’t quite titles, but they are still chosen very intentionally. Burner prefers to credit the songs and artists that inspire her in her captions, and Allan chooses his captions carefully because his Instagram photos are some of his only publicly-displayed works — almost everything else never leaves the studio.

With or without titles, finished pieces of artwork will ideally speak for themselves.

Trying to describe the artistic process with words is like trying to illustrate the journalistic process; one can try, but the two media just aren’t interchangeable. As long as an artist can somehow feel that their work is done, it’s done — no further explanation needed.

‘Days at Dartmouth’: Beauty in the Mundane STORY

MIRROR //5

By Kaijing Janice Chen

Nestled in the stacks of Baker-Berry Library in the company of grand ideas and long, winding histories of Dartmouth College is a book that is in many ways unremarkable, save for the ways it illuminates the quotidian beauty of life as a student here. “Days at Dartmouth,” a collection of letters written by Americo Secondo DeMasi ’35, records his ramblings on the mundane — grades, upcoming exams, fencing practice. DeMasi passed away in the winter of his junior year on Feb. 25, 1934 when a furnace gas leak in Theta Chi filled the house with lethal carbon monoxide fumes, killing him and eight others in their sleep. After his death, DeMasi’s high school teacher Clara Gill compiled the letters he wrote to her, his parents and his girlfriend, Peggy, into the memorial housed on our library shelves. The result is an epistolary memoir that articulates the commonalities of the Dartmouth experience despite the differences that mark the span between our time and his.

DeMasi stepped onto the platform at the White River Junction train station at noon on Sep. 12, 1931 after traveling through the night from his home in Little Neck, New York. Brimming with the excitement of starting college, DeMasi tells his parents of the new friends he met on the train — eight fellow members of the Class of 1935 — who collectively coin the nickname he will use for the rest of his life: Hop. Like most that lie on the weathered pages of this book, this first letter records an experience relatable to many of us and to those who came before him.

To his parents, he wrote, “As things now stand, I’m the happiest boy in the world.

But with this happiness there is also a faint shadow of sadness. The thought of being away from you for such a long time keeps darting through my mind ... But you must realize that this is the first real experience I’ve had in being away from home, and I’m not the hardhearted villain I thought I was.”

DeMasi moves into room four in Fayerweather Hall and falls into step with the rhythms of Dartmouth life. Many of his letters end abruptly with a dash off to a Latin class or Glee Club rehearsal, the hallmark hustle-bustle of college life emerging in the tails of these recollections to his loved ones. Arguably, life as a student is incomplete without the regular bemoaning of humdrum classes and too-low grades.

He wrote, “Miss Gill, how simply grand college would be if we didn’t have to take those final examinations! How marvelous life would seem if we weren’t tortured by the fear of making a C grade instead of a B or an A!” What might be a conversation today in the KAF line is captured in print forever between the yellow covers of this book.

But while many of DeMasi’s letters detail aspects at Dartmouth life we would not think worth memorializing, here and there emerge magnificent moments that are ever more accentuated by the mundanity of the surrounding text. In one letter written on Jan. 20, 1932, DeMasi recounts a walk through College Park with his friend after

studying for an Evolution exam all night.

“Everything was covered with glittering snow,” the letter reads. “Nothing around us but the skies, the stars, the moon and the woods — God’s Paradise. Gosh, Dad, this half hour has done more for me than any Evolution course will ever do. It was sublime. I felt alive.”

DeMasi’s writing of miniscule moments on campus like these injects a vitality into Dartmouth’s living history. During our four years here, this place becomes momentarily ours, appropriated as the site of our delights and sorrows. As we walk across the green to our next class, gripe about daily quandaries on the porch of Collis or sit down for a coffee with somebody from class, it is easy to forget that the spaces in which we find comfort have been home to generations of Dartmouth students before us.

In the fall of 1931, the bells of Baker Tower had only been ringing for three short years, this seemingly permanent part of our landscape newer to campus in DeMasi’s time than Berry Library is to us. Five days after arriving at Dartmouth, DeMasi is sitting in Baker Library writing another letter to his parents. This letter, written 86 years ago in the brooding silence of the Tower Room, is a reminder of the repeated memories we share across history, memories at once unique to us and entirely universal at the same time.

“I am in Baker Library with Bill who is studying French across the table from me,” he wrote. “Inside, everything is dark and quiet. Outside, there is a terrific thunder storm raging. It surely puts you into the old college atmosphere at night.”

As much as many things have remained just about the same at Dartmouth since the 1930s — Baker Library, pestilent exams, the Green — there are moments in DeMasi’s

letters that are perhaps entirely foreign to offer to take one of him in a “studying students at Dartmouth today. Vanished pose,” but he instead takes this moment to Dartmouth traditions like “Wet-Down” grandiosely reiterate his feelings for her. and “Sing-Out” pepper the pages of the He wrote, “I dashed into my room for memoir, and letters describing big weekends your picture and had my picture taken remind us that it was only 40-odd years ago looking at you. Wasn’t that an idea? There that women were welcomed to Dartmouth I sat gazing steadily at you for ten whole as students. minutes. It was divine. The trouble was Despite the absence of women at that the fellows razzed me about the tears Dartmouth, the presence of women is still in my eyes after the ten minutes were up. felt in the letter’s recipients, and especially in If the picture is half way decent, I’ll send the letters to his girlfriend Peggy. His letters it to you.” to her, every one signed, “Always loving Grand declarations like these are you, Hop,” are bursts of raw energy in the accented by the prosaic happenings of other memoir, zealous outpourings of love and letters, but it is the last letter in the book, a anguish of not being by her side. In one letter, haunting juxtaposition between the banal he tells her of his and the beautiful that absentmindedness “Everything was covered succeeds in capturing the during a fencing with glittering snow. extraordinary ordinary. session, all because In the first half of the h e r e c e i v e d a Nothing around us but the letter, DeMasi nitpicks letter from her five skies, the stars, the moon at his grades and resigns minutes before from the mission of and the woods — God’s practice: making it into Phi Beta “ O f c o u r s e , Paradise. Gosh, Dad, this Kappa. Moving away DeMasi was late and half hour has done more from his grades, DeMasi Colonel Dietrich embarks on a declaration was quite peeved. for me than any Evolution of love for Peggy that is Following a hail of course will ever do. It was splendid in its simplicity, commands — ‘En and marked by the tragic g arde!’ ‘Lunge!’ sublime. I felt alive.” knowledge that he did ‘Repeated lunge!’ not live for long after he ‘Seconde parry!’

-AMERICO DEMASI ’35, WRITER wrote it.

‘Quinta!’ ‘Terza!’

“It seems that etc., etc. ‘DeMasi, OF “DAYS AT DARTMOUTH” lately my whole romantic you’re the laziest expression has been %?@% I’ve ever reduced to ‘I love her,’” seen. Why don’t you get down to business?’ he wrote. “But even that may achieve How could I with Peggy’s letter in my pocket, lofty heights in expression when its fullest, half-read? I couldn’t. And I didn’t.” deepest, sincerest sense is appreciated. So In another letter, he tells her how he then, to the devil with the whole Romantic came home from orchestra practice to find school, and may my love for you increase his friends Jim and Bill taking photos. They as the years go by.”

NATALIE DAMERON/THE DARTMOUTH

The collective letters of Americo DeMasi ’35, written shortly before his death by carbon monoxide poisoning, parallel contemporary Dartmouth life.

6// MIRROR

Motives for Motions: The Psychology Behind Marathons STORY

By Eliza Jane Schaeffer

I have cried during a run on numerous occasions — from frustration, from exhaustion, from pain. But I run most every day, and when asked if I enjoy running, I do not hesitate to reply, “Yes.” The follow-up question to that response is usually, “Why?” Truthfully, I do not have a good answer.

Objectively speaking, running is pretty horrendous, particularly when it comes to running long distances, as is the case with marathons or triathlons. Bridget Dougherty ’18 has run a half marathon and two full marathons and confirmed that they were painful experiences.

“Everything kind of hurts,” she said. “The last six miles [of a marathon] are really brutal. When you finish, you’re just so relieved to be done.”

Emma Rodriguez ’20, a member of Dartmouth’s Triathlon Team, agreed, explaining that during a long run or a long bike ride, “It’s just you and your thoughts, and you have to figure out a way to deal with the pain and boredom and continue to push through.”

So why are marathons so popular? Why — in a town of 11,260 — did 474 people finish the CHaD Hero half marathon a few weeks ago?

This question has inspired an entire body of scientific research, and it appears the answer is multifaceted. Survey data reveals that the reasons marathoners choose to compete vary based on their age and experience level.

Those with more experience cited social supports and competitiveness as reasons for competing, while m o r e n ov i c e r u n n e r s c i t e d personal improvement and a feeling of accomplishment as main motivating factors. Those who dropped out of marathons said it was friends or a desire to lose weight which encouraged them to run. Older competitors were also more likely to run for health and social reasons, while younger competitors were more likely to take a more goal-oriented approach.

For Dougherty, it is the sense of accomplishment that comes with completing a race which motivates her to push through the pain.

“I think it’s for the challenge, seeing if you can push yourself to do 26 miles and having it written down,” she said.

Katie Clayton ’18 agreed.

“The feeling of hitting a goal is so, so good,” she said. “Even if it’s one good race out of four, that feeling at the end of knowing you worked really hard for something ... It’s not just that you’ve worked hard in that race, you’ve worked

hard before that making it there.

It is a really good feeling.”

Not only do racers have to push themselves during the competition itself, they also have to train daily for months. Rodriguez is currently training for an Ironman, a race that consists of a 2.4-mile swim, followed by a 112-mile bicycle ride, followed by a 26.2-mile run.

Alone, each of those legs seem unfathomable. Together, they seem suicidal.

Rodriguez trains for about three and a half to four hours every day.

For nearly 30 hours every week, she runs, swims, bikes, lifts and stretches, aiming to complete two workouts each day. It is, as she described it, “a part time job.”

Thus, crossing the finish line represents far more than the completion of however many miles are covered by the race course in question. It represents hours of training, adherence to a strict regimen, the defiance of expectations and the defeat of doubts.

“It’s satisfying to see your improvement,” Rodriguez said.

“It’s satisfying to finish a race and be like ‘I did that.’”

A feeling of accomplishment is easily perceived and easily defined, but there are other neurological benefits which are harder to pinpoint. These motivating factors — just above the level of conscious

awareness but just below the level at to just get fresh air.” which they can be readily identified These benefits do not trivialize — come down to a simple increase the sheer pain of pushing your body in blood flow to parts of the brain beyond its limits. To compensate, associated with planning, focus, m a ny r u n n e r s e m p l oy wh at goal-setting, time management psychologists call “attention and emotion. In a study in which narrowing,” in which they focus on participants watched 30 minutes of a stopping point in the distance. a sad film after either running for When walkers were asked to fixate 30 minutes on a water cooler or stretching “The feeling of hitting or a cone during a for 30 short exercise, they a goal is so, so good. minutes, perceived the cones those who Even if it’s one good to be 28 percent r a n w e r e race out of four, that closer, walked 23 less likely percent faster and t o r e p o r t feeling at the end reported that the feeling sad of knowing you’ve walk required less 15 minutes worked really hard for exertion. later.

B u t in a T h e something [. . .] It’s marathon or i n c r e a s e d not just that you’ve triathlon, the activity in end is far beyond these parts worked hard in the the reaches of of the brain race, you’ve worked competitors’ fields results in a of vision, and hard before that consciously focusing on the perceivable making it there.” finish line would be clarity of depressing rather mind. On than motivating. a run, large -KATIE CLAYTON ’18 “You can’t think problems about the mileage,” become Dougherty said. small and looming goals become “26.2 miles is too long for that.” achievable.

Instead, she does “a lot of “I feel like it clears my head,” mental math.”

Clayton said. “I always take it as Rodriguez agreed. a study break, whether it’s a hard “I for sure do races in fraction,” run or an easy run. It’s really nice she explained. “It’s not even like,

‘Oh, I’m done with the swim,’ it’s like, ‘Oh, I’m a third of the way done with the run, and now I’m halfway.’ I do math in my head.”

Rather than focusing on a cone or a water cooler, these runners create their own private checkpoints. In triathlons, Clayton says she considers each leg to be its own race.

“I’m doing a swim, and then I’m doing a bike race, and then I’m doing a run,” she said. “It’s so much easier to think ‘Oh, I’m just going to swim for 45 minutes’ instead of thinking ‘I’m going to be doing stuff for six hours.’”

Breaking up the race like this is motivating in that it allows the runner to celebrate small successes throughout the run, teasing tastes of the sense of accomplishment that will come as they cross the finish line.

Tr u t h f u l l y, r u n n i n g i s a n exercise in delayed gratification, and — to appropriate Miley Cyrus’s analogy — it is about what’s waiting on the other side rather than the climb itself. The end in question may be different for different individuals: some run for health reasons, some run for the clarity of mind, some run for the reward of achieving a goal, some don’t run because they view it as entirely worthless. But for those who do run, it seems the end justifies the means.

SABA NEJAD/THE DARTMOUTH

Four-hundred and seventy-four people finished the CHaD half-marathon, raising over $700,000 for the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

Grand Finales: Music Students Say Goodbye STORY

MIRR OR //7

By Zachary Gorman

To some Dartmouth students, College for his recital in May 2018. receiving a degree may be all “The intent is to showcase the proof they need that they my musical development and accomplished something over their accomplishment while I’ve been last four years. Some Dartmouth in college,” Pyun said of his musicians, however, also choose upcoming performance. “A sort to demonstrate their development of culmination of my efforts.” t h ro u g h c u l m i n at i n g s e n i o r Some students are able to plan recitals. for their senior recital long before Senior recitals typically consist their senior year begins. Cheryl of three to four memorized pieces Chang ’18, a flutist who will also chosen by the musician to showcase perform her recital during the his or her talents. Though the spring 2018 term, remembers the mu s i c m a j o r re q u i re s s o m e long road that led to her current form of culminating experience, rehearsal process. performing a recital is just one “I came into college knowing of many options. Students who that I would probably do a senior arrange senior recitals often have recital,” Chang said. “I didn’t do personal motivations to make that one at the end of high school, but choice. Pianist Carrie Ann Davison I attended a couple. And last year I ’17, who performed her senior went to a couple senior recitals of recital in spring 2017, chose to friends as well. So I know what it do so because of her attachment looks like and I know what it takes to the pieces that she wished to prepare for one. I guess it’s just to perfor m. Davison became a matter of picking your repertoire entranced by “Estampes,” a 1903 and then just practicing a lot.” piano composition by Claude Students are careful in choosing Debussy, during one of her most their music in order to show memorable that they are Dartmouth far from two“A good program of experiences. dimensional “ I s t a r t e d music should be like musicians. ‘ [ E s t a m p e s ] ’ a well-balanced meal.

C h a n g when I was on believes that a Music FSP in There are going to be senior recitals Vienna during your staples, perhaps should contain my sophomore diversity of your main courses. And amusical s p r i n g, ” style.

D a v i s o n you’re also going to “ I n said. “I just have your desserts, and a traditional absolutely senior recital, l o v e d t h a t your sides.” you should piece. I kept take a few playing it pieces that are -EDDIE PYUN ’18 throughout the contrasting rest of my two in both time years, and it period and ended up in my maybe tempo,” senior recital Chang said. as well even “For instance, though I had I’m playing a been playing baroque piece, it for a long and then a time.” romantic D av i s o n’s piece, and then finale, “Tarantella da Guillaume a modern piece. And I personally Louis Cottrau” by Franz Liszt, has love chamber music, so I’ll throw stayed with her for even longer. in a chamber piece with two of “I chose [Liszt’s ‘Tarantella’] my friends.” because I had always liked the Pyun has the same belief about piece since high school and it’s diversity of style in a recital. really flashy and showy and it’s a “You want to have a good good piece to end with,” Davison variety,” Pyun said. “I’ve heard said. “So by senior year I finally it described that a good program had the technical skills to show it of music should be like a welloff. It was a really great way to see balanced meal. There are going to my improvement throughout the be your staples, perhaps your main four years.” courses. And you’re also going to Davison is not alone in her desire have your desserts, and your sides.” to demonstrate her improvement The recitals also allow students over her time at Dartmouth. to reflect on their time studying Eddie Pyun ’18, a cellist with the music at Dartmouth. Looking Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, back on the years leading up to her hopes to prove the musical recital, Davison is reminded of a development he’s made at the professor who had a particularly

important role in her musical development.

“I took piano lessons with professor Greg Hayes and I had been with him since freshman f a l l , ” D av i s o n s a i d .

“Throughout the four years he suggested a ton of pieces, but he was wonderful in that he always let me choose which pieces I wanted to do. I got to choose the ones I truly enjoyed.

[Hayes] worked with me to really change my technique so I could be more efficient in expressing music. It was really meaningful to work with him to do this final piano recital.”

Chang believes that she will remember her time practicing music at Dartmouth as a welcome diversion from academic pressures. “ I t ’s a g o o d w ay t o b a l a n c e o u t my academic life,” Chang said. “Playing music is a good reason to take a break from all the science and academic stuff I do.”

Looking back on his musical development, Pyun is proud of his achievements.

“The thought does occur to me that, wow, before college I would not have been able to play any of this music,” Pyun said. “But I’ve worked and I’ve progressed to the point that this stuff absolutely is in reach.”

Though these recitals provide an opportunity for students to showcase their own musical improvement, they know from their study of music that art is about more than just one person’s accomplishments.

“Even though it is a senior recital and theoretically it’s kind of like a celebration of my achievement, at the end of the day, it’s still a recital,” Pyun said.

“The intent is still to provide a great musical perfor mance for the people who attend. And as with any musical performance, my hope is that the audience will leave impacted by the music.”

JEE SEOB JUNG/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

8// MIRROR

Changeover PHOTO

By Saba Nejad